I describe a modification to Shanks’ baby-step giant-step algorithm for computing the order n of an element g of a group G, assuming n is finite. My method has the advantage of being able to compute n quickly, which Shanks’ method fails to do when the order of G is infinite, unknown, or much larger than n. I describe the algorithm in detail. I also present the results of implementations of my a...

Baby boomers will begin entering old age in 2011. They will be the largest and most diverse cohort ever to experience this life-course transition. The sheer number of baby boomers has challenged institutions time after time (Dychtwald, 1990). Despite extensive speculation regarding the political, economic, and social impact that the aging of baby boomers will have on American society, no one ha...

We argue that the giant graviton configurations known from the literature have a complementary, microscopical description in terms of multiple gravitational waves undergoing a dielectric (or magnetic moment) effect. We present a non-Abelian effective action for these gravitational waves with dielectric couplings and show that stable dielectric solutions exist. These solutions agree in the large...

In this paper, we consider the problem of computing numerical solutions for stochastic differential equations (SDEs) of Itô form. A fully explicit method, the split-step forward Milstein (SSFM) method, is constructed for solving SDEs. It is proved that the SSFM method is convergent with strong order γ = 1 in the mean-square sense. The analysis of stability shows that the mean-square stability p...

This report describes three case studies of the testing of continuous modelling software. Where possible, the testing has been conducted by following the methodology outlined in the SSfM report " Testing Continuous Modelling Software " [1]. Where following this methodology has not been possible, the advice on alternative testing methods in the report [1] has been employed. The problems studied ...

We examine the formation of giant elliptical galaxies using their globular cluster (GC) systems as probes of their evolutionary history. The bimodal distributions of GC metallicities in such galaxies are often cited as evidence for the formation of giant elliptical galaxies through mergers involving gas-rich spirals, with the metal-rich GCs forming during the merger process. We explore an alter...